Are we there yet?
Published 10-29-2020
Five more days, and never in my adult life have I been happier to see an election campaign season end.
While there have been some nice pauses in the campaign season... the swearing in ceremony Monday night at the White House for now Justice Amy Coney Barrett was definitely of the highlights.
From the sit ins on the floor of the Senate, and an overnight session for the cloture requirement to the “Hell No” vote of Senator Marie Hirono of Hawaii, there were some fireworks and bitterness for a vote that was pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Also precious... the parade of little ones trick or treating in costume Saturday night at the White House for the annual Halloween celebration, this year’s featuring children of military and first responders. Watching little soldiers salute the President, with his trademark salute returned made for sweet moments that were juxtaposed against much of the anger and angst that has fueled the campaign. The mini Donald and Melania complete with red tie and a signature dress being photographed together (social distancing rules applied) with the First Couple caused more than one chuckle with the assembled press corps, and I hope those kids have the best memories of a fun filled night.
The staff at the White House gets resounding kudos for all of the hard work they put in to showcase the White House in every season and for every event to make it something Americans can be proud of. Saturday’s decorations included a Fall wonderland of pumpkins, hay and leaves. 48 hours later that same area was awash with flags and patriotic banners to celebrate the newest justice.
Unfortunately it can’t all be pumpkins and flags. Because the campaign goes on and on and on.
The pace of the campaign, at least the news cycle doesn’t have time for fanciful kid’s costumes, and CNN and MSNBC didn’t cover the confirmation of Justice Barrett, instead running a chyron lamenting the “White House celebrates judges while hundreds of thousands die.” More than a little disingenuous, even for those two networks.
The New York Times Tuesday Opinion Pages ran no less than six competing columns demanding legislators not just pack the Supreme Court, but expansion of the lower courts as well. All written by legal scholars from Boston College, Yale, Stanford, UC Davis and University of Michigan... some of the top law schools in the nation.
Not that I’m expecting the Times to finally grow a conscience and publish an opinion that is a full throated defense of the Constitution, but even something from the center-left side of things would maybe break up the monotony of the elite and powerful demanding ever more power in their quest for electoral domination and control.
The confirmation once again gave Americans a clear picture of what the immediate future would look like, depending on the results of the election. Democrat demands of an “illegitimate process” ring hollow when the norms busted to make this nomination happen were done by then Senate Leader Harry Reid. After he was warned that Republicans would eventually win control of the Senate, and the same precedents and rules would apply to that session as well.
I know that eight years may seem like a lifetime ago, but it’s really not so much when judges are still refereeing case arguments older than the Constitution itself.
I don’t expect honest historical arguments from today’s progressive Democrats, whose only use for history is to re-write it to suit their short term goals. I don’t expect them to remember the 27 other times a justice was seated in an election year when both the White House and Senate were held by the same party. I don’t even expect a completely honest representation of Barrett’s rulings and judicial philosophy, though trying to paint a mother of seven and law professor who volunteers in her community as some religious handmaiden bringing about a return to the dark ages is a new one. Even if it was quite predictable after the sordid innuendos and outright disturbing false claims levied against Justice Kavanaugh.
No, this campaign season can’t be saved by a brand new Gen. X justice or cute kids in costumes.
We have a national media completely in the tank for a candidate who can’t make it out of his house more than three times a week. A media who prefers peddling fear and loathing regarding the pandemic, at least until Election Day.
That same candidate is having fireside chats with selected small groups of hand-picked donors and supporters seven days out, while his surrogates... namely his wife and the former President are the ones giving the speeches.
One side has decided that retail politics... the shaking hands (verboten in the times of ‘Rona), registering voters, and crisscrossing the country can be thrown by the wayside for Zoom meet ups where a staffer is in charge of the microphone and managing the optics of an aging candidate who doesn’t do well with numbers.
And then we have the polls.
It all seems like a joke, and we’re the punchline.
Of course the Presidential campaign couldn’t be complete without the least shocking October surprise of all time. Emails, text messages and audio recordings, amongst photos that show questionable and illegal behavior, from a laptop purportedly owned by Hunter Biden and left at a repair shop in Delaware. The evidence from the computer lays out at minimum nepotism and sale of access to the former Vice President that would make any third world dictator proud.
The campaign was quick to claim Russian disinformation, which is beyond wild, because players in the Biden circle and recipients of said emails have stepped forward and given access to their digital accounts to provide confirmation of what was found on the computer by independent journalists.
A less charitable reading of the emails, when combined with investigations coming out of Ukraine’s government and reporting by Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley lay out a more sinister plot that would be more fitting to mafia shakedowns and RICO cases.
More concerning than the taxpayer money that was flying across the Atlantic were the payoffs and investments in China, and a deal Hunter was working on with one of the Communist Party’s spy chiefs who is now missing and is rumored to be responsible for the deaths of over 20 human intel sources (American spies) inside China during the last administration. The deal was for billions to build a LNG port, and included millions of dollars in commissions for Rosemont Seneca, one of Biden’s investment groups that at one point involved Paul Pelosi and Chris Heinz, the sons of Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry.
It’s all distasteful business, and exactly what I expected from someone who’s been in the swamp for longer than I’ve been alive.
None of it is ok. Especially from the candidate who says character counts.